Exhibitors
SHOW GARDENS | COURTYARD GARDENS | CHIC GARDENS | CITY GARDENS
PLANTS | FLORAL ART | LIFELONG LEARNING | MARKET PLACE
Lifelong learning
Educational and Scientific Displays
Click on the images to view a hi-res version
Agriton BV-Pillerton Designs
Micro-organism eco-systems for soil improving and microrrhizal fungi.
Association of British Fungus Groups
Fungi in the Garden: the Good, the Bad and the Beautiful
This exhibit aims to demonstrate and explain the role of fungi in the garden in an attractive and accessible manner. It is a representative back garden that is stocked with well crafted models of relevant fungi species 'planted' in situ.
The exhibit includes some of the familiar features of a back garden including a shed, log pile, tree stumps, small trees with banked rough grass area, lawn area, bark chippings, garden table and chairs. The backdrop includes a series of portrait format photographs of fungi. The groups of fungi models and in vivo specimens are enhanced with concealed low voltage lighting and by each species is a board that describes its role in the garden.
The Association of British Fungus Groups (ABFG) says that during autumn - fungus fruiting season - it receives more inquiries from horticulturists and home gardeners than any other section of the community.
Michael Jordan is a trained mycologist who launched the ABFG in 1997 as a voluntary conservation body. Today the Association includes 26 regional UK fungus foray groups made up of amateur enthusiasts. Michael is the author of the current leading UK field mycology reference work for amateurs, The Encyclopedia of Fungi (Francis Lincoln, 2004), as well as a number of other mass-market books on fungi. Prior to this he worked in television (first as a presenter of Wild Track and other natural history programmes for BBC1 during the 1980s). He campaigned to popularise field mycology as the only effective way of competing for investment and conservation support. To this end he achieved a commission to write and present a six-part TV series about fungi, first broadcast by Channel 4 in 1990 as Mushroom Magic.
British Fuchsia Society
The exhibit features examples of encliandras, which are an unusual group of fuchsias. Encliandra flowers are less than 1cm long and come in a wide variety of colours. They flower for almost 12 months of the year and are resilient to most of the British weather as their natural environment is 15,000ft high in the mountains of South America. Encliandras also include fuchsias that have a definite perfume.
This exhibit includes examples of encliandras from those with the smallest of flowers, which are about 2mm long, to other cultivars that have three different coloured flowers on the same plant. There is also an area in this display which shows the adaptability of these plants to different growing styles from bonsai to topiary.
Carol Gubler, who runs a specialist fuchsia nursery in Surrey, grew all the plants on this stand. Encliandras are a speciality at the nursery where she has a large collection of different cultivars. Carol is currently the Assistant Secretary of the British Fuchsia Society
British Mycological Society
Thank Fungus For That!
This exhibit features a range of live fungi and life-like models to illustrate nature’s biodiversity. This display also highlights how we depend on fungi for many items in our weekly shopping basket, a number of medicines and many other aspects of our daily life.
The display shows how all plants depend on fungal associates in their roots to help them grow and how farm animals depend on fungi in the gut to digest grass It also demonstrates that a number of drugs, including penicillin, come from fungi.
Chichester College - Brinsbury Campus
Promoting horticulture to younger generations
Garden Organic
Garden organic - it starts with compost
Drying flowers and rotten vegetables are the focal point of Garden Organics daring display at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. This unusual display features a larger-than-life compost bin overflowing with decomposing garden and kitchen waste. The aim is to show that creating compost should be the first step of any gardener who wants to make their plants thrive and to protect the environment at the same time.
As well as decomposing plants in the compost bin, this stand features a demonstration of the plant life cycle. This begins with a display of seedlings and vegetables, including Cichorium intybus (chicory), Lotus tetragonolobus (asparagus pea) and the Heritage Seed Library cultivar Beta vulgaris ‘Bull’s Blood’.
These are followed by sections of fruit including Ribes nigrum ‘Ben Connan’, with the attractant beneficial Limnanthes douglasii (poached egg plant) for underplanting, and flowers including perennials Auchusa azurea and Aquilegia vulgaris var. stellata and annuals Daucus carota and Tagetes. The final stage of the plant life cycle demonstration will feature the dead stems of Dipsacus, Eryngium and Oenothera.
This will be the third exhibit that landscape architect Rebecca Warren has designed for Garden Organic. Her previous two designs - The Children’s Organic Adventure Garden and the Organic Food for All exhibit - won a Gold and a Silver Medal, respectively, in the Lifelong Learning section of the show. Rebecca, from Kent, has worked as a volunteer at Garden Organic Yalding and is passionate advocate of organic gardening methods.
Historic Roses Group
The Ancestry of Some Historic Rose Hybrids - established using DNA analysis
Botanical DNA fingerprinting has provided conclusive evidence of the parentage of some very early rose hybrids, such as the Damasks. This hybridisation, little influenced by man, occurred more than 2,000 years ago. Before now no exact records of the parents of these hybrids existed.
This exhibit describes the established rose parents and their hybrids, supported by the DNA science and graphics. In addition, maps show the most likely places the hybrids first occurred. Living examples of the parent plants and their hybrids are featured in the display.
A key plant in this exhibit is Rosa fedtschenkoana, the species discovered by the Russian botanist, Olga Fedtschenko in the 1860s - the surprise pollen parent involved in the Damasks.
The Historic Roses Group of the RNRS is made up rosarians, scholars, rose breeders and growers. The Group exists mainly to widen public knowledge of rose history by means of publications, seminars and exhibitions to conserve and research old garden roses and rose species, including roses no longer in commercial cultivation.
The London Group of the NCCPG
Plant cultivation over the centuries
This exhibit recognises the tercentenary of the death of John Evelyn who, in his writings, the Elysium Britannicum and the Kalendarium, recommended plants to gardeners that could be grown in England and provide year round interest, and many of those plants are still available today.
This exhibit aims to highlight the long history of plant breeding and collecting, which has resulted in the vast and diverse range of plants that are available to the modern gardener. The themes highlight the importance of conserving our garden plant heritage.
This exhibit presents two gardens. The first is in a 17th century style garden, containing plants listed by John Evelyn and still in cultivation today. The second mirrors the design of the first, but is planted up with the best modern cultivars of the Evelyn plants. A painted backdrop depicts the temple still present in Wotton House - John Evelyn’s home in Surrey.
Key plants in this exhibit are box, lavender and santolina hedges, mulberry and citrus trees and in pots aquilegias, digitalis, asphodels, pinks, hesperis and lilies. Ivy, vinca, thyme, bellis, armeria and pulmonaria will serve as ground cover.
Merrist Wood Campus, Guildford College
This exhibit displays various ways of growing trees in restricted spaces. The exhibit’s open box framework gives the impression of a small courtyard. Within the display three trees demonstrate three methods that can be used to keep trees small. Visitors can walk through the exhibit reading storyboards and experiencing the feel a tree can provide in a small space.
The three methods for keeping trees small are: plant selection, by choosing plants that grow slowly or are very small; pruning; and using containers to restrict the growth of the roots. In the display an upright hornbeam is containerised, a magnolia has been lightly pruned to restrict growth and a maple highlights the plant selection and containerisation aspects.
The Royal College of Pathologists
Pathology, Plants, Diet and Disease
This exhibit explains some of the links between plants, foods and their chemical components and symptoms, diagnosis, prevention and treatment of diseases. The central display shows information about how plants contribute to a healthy diet and explains how they work.
Four poster boards are dedicated to a specific disease and the food plants which, if eaten, will reduce the risk of disease. Two further boards include details of how pathologists diagnose and monitor the disease. The relevant fruits and vegetables are displayed beneath each board and a microscope for viewing the pathology slides related to the various diseases is situated in the centre of the stand with expert pathologists on hand to show exhibits to visitors.
In the front of the stand is a central display with a variety of relevant plants set out like an allotment. This highlights the diversity of produce and shows how readily available good nutrition can be.
There are four examples of fruits and vegetables where there is a strong link to disease risk reduction with the appropriate diet, including cancer and fresh vegetables.
Society for General Microbiology
Plants and Microbes - a deadly duel
This exhibit features a range of healthy plants that are susceptible to a particular disease arranged in front of display panels, which invite visitors to take a closer look at the microscopic world of plant pathogens.
Photographs of the relevant pathogen and the damage it causes are supported by scientific descriptions of the symptoms and clear information on transmission, infection, colonization and control.
This exhibit features a range of common garden plants including ornamental and fruiting trees, shrubs, border perennials and vegetables.
Sparsholt College Hampshire
Rescue remedies.
The University of Reading
The science behind cut flowers.
Warwick HRI, University of Warwick
Riding the Wave of Brassica Biodiversity
Brassica is a large and diverse genus of plants that includes several species comprising a range of crops. Warwick HRI’s research exploits the natural biodiversity of brassicas, through traditional breeding, to benefit the environment and human health. Knowledge of brassica biodiversity is allowing researchers to reduce pesticide use, improve health benefits and produce environmentally-friendly oils.
The Warwick HRI stand features a surfboard made from plant-derived oils, along with various interactive exhibits including a microscope to view turnip mosaic virus on a slide and a container of aphids, which carry the disease. A selection of brassicas that people can touch which exhibit diversity is also on display. Visitors to the stand will also see brassica transplants with companion planting for organic growers and senescing broccoli at varying stages of decay.
There is a backdrop of images and information and two planting beds, one of which rotates, and a model of DNA. The planting is entirely made up of plants from the Brassica family; this includes novel cultivars of edible brassicas, oil seed rape and ornamental plants. There are also unusual brassica species grown from seed stored in Warwick HRI’s Genetic Resources Unit to emphasise the importance of maintaining, managing and using biodiversity.
The Worshipful Company of Gardeners with Capel Manor College
Celebrating 400 years of The Worshipful Company of Gardeners.
Writhlington Business and Enterprise School
Orchids Adventures in Conservation, Science, Horticulture and Enterprise
This exhibit tells the story of the Writhlington School Orchid Project through plants, images and text. The display will highlight the school students’ award-winning science research carried out on recent expeditions to Guatemala, Costa Rica and Brazil. This includes work that has won students a place at this year’s finals of Young Scientist of the Year.
The exhibit highlights Writhlington School’s conservation enterprise initiatives in Guatemala, India, Costa Rica and Gabon and how the school has linked these partners in the UK including The Eden Project, Bicton Park Botanic Gardens, AT Bristol and Hillier Garden Centres.
It also includes information about the habitats, status and cultivation of tropical orchids and demonstrates excellence in raising and growing orchids from all over the globe. Visitors to the display will also find out about the award-winning Young Enterprise projects run by students at Writhlington including National Prize winning companies Los Amigos del Bosque and Brazil-Brazil.
The orchid species in the display have all been grown by the pupils and include many plants raised from seed by the students. The display is supported with information about every species present including the natural habitat, conservation status, cultivation and other human stories, such as Encycliacochleata being the national flower of Belize.
There is a special focus on the diversity of species included in this display and how this represents the diversity in orchid species and the importance of protecting biodiversity especially in tropical forests.
The teacher is Simon Pugh-Jones and he grew orchids himself as a teenager and set up the Writhlington School Orchid Project. Simon has led Science expeditions to Guatemala, Costa Rica and Brazil, which have resulted in outstanding research.
Pupil Callum Swift is 17 years old and has been involved in the Orchid project since he was 11. Callum is the youngest person to be awarded an RHS Merlin Grant for his recent expedition to Guatemala where he worked with fellow pupil, Chris Ashman, who will also be at the show, to prepare a field guide to the orchids of the Yaxha Forest Reserve.
Chris has carried out research of orchids in the wild in Costa Rica, Guatemala and Brazil and was in the final of Young Scientist of the Year in February. He has also been awarded an RHS Merlin Grantin the summer of 2005.
Writtle College
Recycling waste products